· What does conditional positive regard look like in practice?? I think many others nailed it with the whole "I care about you. You have value. You don't have to do anything to prove it to me..." So nothing has to be proven or earned by the student and everyone is equal in the class. People aren’t just “the kid good at solving equations” you are getting to know that person. What they like and what makes them them. When you extend this olive branch so to speak, barriers can taken down or eased at least and you can build a rapport. Everyone has things that are brought with them from outside the classroom and we cannot assume what those barriers are, and how some one is reacting or projecting to you might not be a choice, it might be a reaction to trying to not to get hurt by an adult in an authoritative position.·
Consider a time when you went out of your way to connect with a student. What did you have to do? What were the outcomes?
I had a student who was very quiet and kept to themselves. They didn’t talk much. I know they were a student who was an English Language Learner and I dismissed that because they spoke English in class at a high level and there did not seem to be a processing delay (my oversight 100%). After a test, that the student struggled on, they were a little abrasive and I thought it was due to being upset over struggling. I asked the student to sit and we began talking about the test, and that transitioned to what I can do to help. Not putting it on the student. They opened up. They said they are struggling to make friends because of the language barrier and they are afraid to talk in anything but their native language. We talked about making friends, and common interests or even common struggles to talk about. This student is much more willing to come up and ask for help or even ask questions aloud now.
Consider a time when you went out of your way to connect with a student. What did you have to do? What were the outcomes?
I had a student who was very quiet and kept to themselves. They didn’t talk much. I know they were a student who was an English Language Learner and I dismissed that because they spoke English in class at a high level and there did not seem to be a processing delay (my oversight 100%). After a test, that the student struggled on, they were a little abrasive and I thought it was due to being upset over struggling. I asked the student to sit and we began talking about the test, and that transitioned to what I can do to help. Not putting it on the student. They opened up. They said they are struggling to make friends because of the language barrier and they are afraid to talk in anything but their native language. We talked about making friends, and common interests or even common struggles to talk about. This student is much more willing to come up and ask for help or even ask questions aloud now.